Anaheim, ALA 2008: The Real Libraries of the OC

Sandwiched between Los Angeles and San Diego counties, nudging up to Riverside and San Bernardino to the east, Orange County, CA, may be defined by beach communities and The O.C., the Crystal Cathedral megachurch, and oodles of malls, but the area is far more diverse than the stereotype. After all, it's the country's fifth-largest county, with three million–plus inhabitants.

Orange County has no dominant city; its two largest, Santa Ana and Anaheim—each with populations around 350,000—are, respectively, home to lower-income Latinos and a varied and sprawling community, well beyond iconic Disneyland.

It's tough to visit just a few of the OC's libraries and get a full portrait. For instance, the largest system, the Orange County Public Library (OCPL), has 33 varied branches—though no main. And some prosperous smaller cities have strong independent libraries. Nonetheless, a whirlwind tour of a dozen sites in April left LJ with an outline of the situation.

One strong impression: Orange County, despite its anchor in modernity, is very much a product of its history, as cities that established independent service lie nestled in a larger county system. Another: many librarians have learned from the innovative Cerritos Library, just across the border in Los Angeles County. Also, libraries in this historically Republican stronghold—which is changing politically, as well—are hardly shy about soliciting private funds and honoring donors. They'll be further strained now that the real estate recession will lower property tax revenues; most libraries in the county face belt-tightening, if not in the fiscal year that begins in July, then a year later.

If coastal communities like Newport Beach and Laguna Beach claim the county's signature image, inland cities offer a stark counterpoint. Indeed, Santa Ana, with a population larger than Pittsburgh and a population more than three-quarters Hispanic, has the most Spanish speakers in the country. It also has only $15 per capita for library service, about half the statewide average. It has put a lot of money into public safety and now after such trade-offs offers only two library locations.

Serving the youngest median age of the country's 100 largest cities, the Santa Ana Public Library (SAPL) focuses its limited resources on youth. So, Director Rob Richard considers it a mark of success that 38 percent of Santa Ana residents have library cards, a modest number that is five times the total two decades ago.

The library has reduced staff by 40 percent over the past 14 years, but SAPL does have a significant bilingual staff, with ten of 15 librarians speaking Spanish and two speaking Vietnamese. Four staffers in the new Assistant Librarian track are in library school, supported by the state library.

That staff struggles with few locations to address a gaping digital divide. Given that only about one-third of residents have home Internet connections, SAPL offers significant computer training. A teen space is coming at the main library downtown. Still, that library isn't easy for all residents to reach. Budget cuts closed a branch and eliminated most bookmobile service, hence new efforts to supplement service at high school libraries. A new foundation is in the works.

The library's central spot among many government buildings in the county seat has posed some curious problems. For instance, SAPL has opted out of the nine-member Santiago Library System, the state-funded resource-sharing network, because, in Richard's eyes, it was not being sufficiently reimbursed and its staff was strained.

A short drive northwest of Santa Ana, through Garden Grove, leads to Anaheim and the Anaheim Convention Center, location of most of the events of the American Library Association (ALA) annual conference this month. Like some more spread-out cities—think Orlando, in Orange County, FL—the convention center is not adjacent to the downtown. (However, ALA planners hasten to point out that, in Anaheim, many hotels and restaurants are within walking distance of the convention center. See “OC Eats” on p. 54 for LJ's insider's guide to cuisine, keyed to the map on p. 62.)

While various parts of the sprawling city are thriving, downtown is still filling in gaps made during urban renewal, but the main library—and a cousin—provide some anchors. That cousin, the Muzeo, an urban cultural center and museum focusing on the Hispanic experience, opened last October. The 25,000 square foot complex includes the city's original Carnegie Library, built in 1908 and nicely repurposed to include the Anaheim Public Library's (APL) history room, which contains nearly one million items and a Disneyland collection.

A few blocks away, the Central Library, built in 1963 with a basement bomb shelter, has been opened up with new windows at the corner, but it remains in transition. A new children's room debuted in December. Director Carol Stone credits a visit to the “Experience Library” in Cerritos with inspiring a major donor to give $400,000 to boost APL's efforts. The “7–8 Place,” a creative effort to reach out to tweens, sits nearby.

A new teen center is coming by fall, but there's 10,000 square feet of unfinished and unused space below ground. Stone says a modest influx of money would boost collections, including Spanish-language materials and well-used instructional VHS tapes. “We have lots of space to make a state-of-the-art central library,” Stone notes, “but we just don't have the money.”

Still, Stone is planning for the city's growth. APL has just joined the Urban Libraries Council. Skyscrapers are expected to come to Anaheim, as well as a major urban transit center. “One thing I'm working on: What is the best type of library service to high-rises?” she asks rhetorically. “We were on a fast track, then the mortgage crisis hit and put everything on hold.” One first step: a library kiosk.

A map of APL's six locations shows a horizontal city, with several neighborhoods served by bookmobiles. The branch in East Anaheim is far closer to the library in the smaller city of Yorba Linda than to the Central Library, while residents in Anaheim's north may be closer to the Fullerton Public Library. Nearby is California State University, Fullerton. It supplies APL and other libraries with a steady supply of newly minted MLS-holders.

APL's Haskett branch, which opened in 2006, is west of downtown in a more working-class neighborhood with a strong Hispanic presence. It offers some subject-related signage and comfortable chairs, as well as an elaborate, well-designed children's space. It's the city's first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)–certified building, with energy-efficient lighting, water-saving infrared technology in the restrooms, and the use of recycled building materials. A “Bug Hunt,” designed by Anaheim Public Utilities, helps students decode library locations with “green” measures. A tween space is called “The Place.”

Haskett is also where librarian/restaurant guide author Scott Douglas works. His memoir, Quiet, Please: Dispatches of a Public Librarian, was released in April (see LJ Xpress Reviews). In it, Douglas aims to write about libraries in general, but close readers who visit may recognize APL from his quizzical depiction of the library's enthusiastic embrace of In'N'Out Burger, the beloved local chain that offers burgers as reading rewards. “For most of our children,” Director Stone suggests, “this is a real treat.”

It's not far to go southeast from Haskett to Santa Ana—where OCPL has its headquarters but offers no service—but between them is Garden Grove, home to a generic-looking OCPL regional library. (The system has three regions.) County librarian Helen Fried must balance multiple constituencies. For instance: “Most cities in the north of the county have older buildings not built to accommodate computers,” she says. Moreover, funding for individual branches depends on a complex allocation formula that takes into account circulation, population, and property tax.

With a budget near the state average, OCPL gathers materials in a variety of Asian languages, plus Spanish and Farsi, to serve distinct pockets of the county; on a wide scale, it can offer some services, such as literacy training, to neighboring systems. And, in another confirmation of the role of libraries as custodians of history, the library is “experimenting with the digitization of historical photos,” says Fried.

Library buildings are the responsibility of individual communities rather than the OCPL system, so branches depend on local support. In Irvine, southeast of Santa Ana, a variety of local and county funding sources, both public and private, provided $6.5 million for theKatie Wheeler Branch Library. It is a reproduction—thanks to old photographs, architectural drawings, and even counsel from its namesake, who died in 2003—of an early 20th-century ranch house that was demolished in 1968 after a fire. “Everybody loves the building,” says teen librarian Susan Pina.

Katie Wheeler, which opened this February, was the first building in the 16-acre Irvine Ranch Historic Park, the future headquarters of Orange County Parks and once a major area farm. From one angle, Katie Wheeler seems ensconced in greenery, but peek around the corner and there's a seemingly endless succession of shopping malls. Even with Katie Wheeler, however, Irvine, according to an October 2006 account in the Orange County Register, considers itself to be underserved.

Near the county's southern tip, the library in the historic town of San Juan Capistrano is so beloved that it's featured on the cover of the city map. The handsome building, which serves as an OCPL regional library, was designed after famed architect Michael Graves won a design competition. Its grand courtyard is home to concerts, and the library's auditorium is the town's only movie theater.

The landmark is not without challenges. The interior is dark, and the succession of small rooms and nooks makes it hard for librarians to see from a desk. Some of the handsome fixtures from a quarter-century ago, such as bins for LP records, have had to be repurposed, just as holes for computer wiring have had to be drilled into some of Graves's tables.

“From the point of view of the library worker, it's not as efficient,” acknowledges Fried. Still, Teri Garza, the branch manager, is enthusiastic, especially since the Friends have launched a $4 million effort to spruce up the interior and add some space once occupied by gazebos. “Anybody can work in a box library,” says Garza. “How many people can say they work in an architectural wonder?”

Quick visits to other branches show continuing efforts to cope. For instance, at the busy Garden Grove Regional Library, which is across the street from a high school, a sign warns about an “ongoing problem of newspaper vandalism.” In Westminster, home to Little Saigon, the branch lists literacy classes; the children's library was collecting proof of purchases from Campbell soups and other branches to raise money. Farther south in more prosperous Aliso Viejo, the Neighborhood Cup coffee house, part of the library building but accessible through an exterior entrance, helps make a suburban place more of a center.

For four years, annual rankings of America's Most Literate Cities have put Anaheim and Santa Ana at the bottom. It focuses on literacy indicators like newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources.

However, there are reasons to question that, as one recent example shows. In 2007, Literary Orange was born, an annual authors' festival, sponsored by OCPL, the University of California, Irvine, Libraries, and the California Center for the Book. A committee of OCPL librarians launched the festival, Fried says, “because we are such a large community, we needed a common goal.”

This year's event, held in April at a hotel in Garden Grove, drew hundreds of residents—notably, middle-aged Anglo women—to hear keynote speakers Elizabeth George and Janet Fitch, both authors with local ties.

Though not the largest system, the Newport Beach Public Library (NBPL) is clearly the county's healthiest, thanks to solid funding and steady private support. It has been honored in various national rankings. Its foundation sponsors speakers and book groups, laptops and audiobook-loaded iPods for lending, and it is even helping the library pay for a new integrated library system.

“We are truly grateful for the level of respect that the library has,” Linda Katsouleas, who recently retired as director, tells LJ. “They generally consider us their crown jewel.”

The main library, which masqueraded as a hotel in the 1997 comedy Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, is a roomy and well-provisioned civic space, hosting art exhibits presented by the City Arts Commission and a wide variety of programs (estate planning, anyone), along with the usual library services. It opened in 1994, and five years later USA Today named the Charles Sword Reading Room as one of the nation's top ten reading rooms.

The Mariners Branch, which opened in 2006, is a joint-use public and school library. The Balboa Branch has a special nautical collection. A community center offers “concierge service,” a place to pick up holds and drop off materials. And for a sense of perspective, the total square footage is some 50 percent greater than that in Santa Ana, though the latter has four times the population.

“We are probably obsessed with customer service,” Katsouleas says. NBPL even employs “secret shoppers,” another idea borrowed from the innovative Cerritos.

There is one major drawback: Newport Beach is so expensive that typical employees can't afford to live within city limits but live in lower-rent cities nearby. “We hire from all across the country,” Katsouleas explains. “We spend a lot of time and money on training, so we can grow our own middle management, which is hard to find.”

Several libraries in the county, including the underfunded Santa Ana, have history rooms, but the City of Orange Public Library & History Center takes the concept to the next level. The new name was bestowed upon the physical and conceptual expansion of the library in 2007. The revamped building is some two-and-a-half times the size of its predecessor.

“In the previous edition of the building, we had virtually all our priceless local materials in the basement, inaccessible,” explains library director Nora Jacob. “When we did our community needs assessment in space planning, the number two priority was for a separate local history center.” The renovation of a historic fountain and its new placement at the library helped catalyze the concept, and the entire effort connects the library firmly to the Old Towne Orange Historic District, which includes more than 1300 homes and other buildings and is one square mile, the largest National Register District in California.

The library's collection covers the city's history (including the citrus industry) since 1871, with a variety of materials, including maps, ephemera, and artifacts. A history walk out back makes the connection more palpable. The day LJ visits, local dignitaries are commemorating the city's 120th anniversary by dedicating a 13'-tall El Camino Real bell that recalls the road that connected 21 Franciscan missions.

Inside, the library has adopted RFID (radio frequency identification) tags to hasten self-check. A “welcome” desk—another concept borrowed from Cerritos—aims to answer quick questions, dispel complaints, and help with RFID. The library foundation raised $2 million for the new library, and nearly every section of the building, from the teen zone to study rooms, prominently honors a donor. Still, operating funds don't come easy. Jacob has been forced to make some choices, giving up three 19-hour part-time positions for a new technology position.

The establishment of the history center is one tactic to ensure libraries' centrality in the community. Libraries will have to continue to make their case and even hit up their customers. After all, as BusinessWeek reported in an April article headlined “The Other Orange County,” the “subprime mortgage fiasco” is about to hit some communities hard, and the libraries of Orange County will feel a pinch.